Beuys' Parallel Processes exhibited in Düsseldorf

The largest retrospective to date of Joseph Beuys¿the artist who always defended the idea that there is an artist in every human being¿recently opened to the public at the Kunstsammlung in Düsseldorf. According to Marion Ackerman, the Museum's Director, the exhibition aims at showing Beuys in a complete light, through a body of work that is certain to impact visitors. The exhibition is entitled Parallel Processes, in reference to Beuys' idea of all the themes addressed in the work being connected to each other. The exhibition consists of 300 works that together occupy a surface of over 32,000 square feet. The works are vast and different: from virtually bodiless drawings, to installations weighting more than 2,200 pounds, such as Lightning with Stag in Its Glare. It is a thorough retrospective in the artist's hometown, where Beuys developed his career. Themes such as the hunger strike, the struggle for racial integration, conservation of the environment, all the subjects Beuys that obsessed about, are present in the exhibition. Its curator, Elizabeth Malz, and her team have worked to maintain Beuys' essence intact, so that visitors can see the things that motivated one of the most influential creators of the Twentieth Century, an artist who made popular the idea "Art is life and life is Art" popular. There are in many of the works telluric elements that the author would render with materials as unorthodox as blood or fat. The exhibition will remain open until January 16, 2011.